


Morning Rituals

by secluded_delusions



Series: It's the Small Things that Mean the Most [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clack, Deviates From Canon, Ficlet, Fix-It, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Love, M/M, Slice of Life, zakkura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 07:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8614756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secluded_delusions/pseuds/secluded_delusions
Summary: "I always wanna make sure you wake up smiling and laughing.  Making sure you’re happy is the best way to start the day.” - Zack.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cream_pudding](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cream_pudding/gifts).



> This will be part of a series of short ficlets. I don't know long, but the dialog and its accompanying actions has been taken from my life between my beau and I, and Clackified, since cream_pudding suggested it. So thanks, cream, this one is for you.
> 
> Oh, Cloud is around his mid twenties here, maybe 24 or 25 years old, and probably will be for most of this series, if you need to know. If I decide to keep the time-frame consistent. lol

Late morning sunlight shines through the cracks in the curtains covering the bedroom window.  It settles on his eyelids uncomfortable and bright, rousing him from sleep.  
  
Cloud Strife has never been one to wake up easy.  He remembers how difficult it was to wake up on school mornings, he would be quick to fall back to sleep as soon as he turned his alarm off.  His mum would have to come into his room to make sure he woke with enough time for breakfast and make it to school without being late.  That is, if the ever effervescent Zack Fair didn’t do it first.  
  
Cloud stretches his limbs, yawning.  
  
Zack is two years older than Cloud, and is Cloud’s long-time childhood friend.  Zack quickly took to the diffident Cloud when they met in preschool, with Zack wanting to get to know the awkward boy and to bring him out of his shell.  They have been inseparable since.  They may not have been neighbours but they grew up together, with one always visiting the other at their respective home when not at school.   
  
Grabbing his cell phone, Cloud checks the time. ‘ _Just after 11,_ ’ he thinks to himself, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.  
  
Cloud is always enamoured with Zack’s boundless energy, wondering where the older boy got it.  Zack is the kind of person to be awake as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon, raring to face the day ahead of him, whereas it takes Cloud a few hours after waking up to be discerning.  Zack is generally always bouncing into Cloud’s home to come and wake the younger boy up if Cloud wasn’t awake yet, so it became an almost daily ritual growing up.  
  
Rolling onto his side, phone still in hand, Cloud pulls the other pillow from the empty space beside him.  He hugs it tight, inhaling that all-too-familiar scent of spice and sandalwood - revelling in the comfort it brings him.  
  
As the years passed, the boys began to develop mutually intimate feelings for the other as they matured, and had started dating.  After high school they were both accepted at Midgar University, so they moved away from home not long after graduation.  Though they had different studies and lived in dorms on opposite ends of the campus, they still made time to spend with one another.  Now as adults with jobs of their own, they moved into an apartment together once they graduated university.   
  
On days off of work, Cloud likes to lounge in bed upon waking.  He checks the various social media accounts he’s a part of before actually getting up, though Cloud no longer feels the urge to immediately fall back to sleep like in his younger days.

Not long has Cloud been browsing the newsfeed on his phone when he hears some movement downstairs.  There's an excited stomping of feet up the stairs to the bedroom, a click of the doorknob turning, and the door bursts open!  In flies Zack Fair, who has pounced from the doorway onto the bed they share, causing Cloud to bounce as Zack lands beside him.  Cloud smiles at Zack’s exuberance.  
  
“I saw you were on Facebook!  You’re finally awake!!” Zack breathes heavily from his commotion, planting a big, wet kiss on Cloud’s cheek.  “I came in many times and I kissed you, and kissed you!  But you wouldn’t wake up!!”  
  
A soft chuckle escapes Cloud’s lips when Zack begins to pout.  
  
“Hey,” Zack frowns at Cloud’s laugh, “You’re my sleeping beauty, I’m supposed to kiss you awake! It made me sad, I was gonna cry!” He pouts, furrowing his brows and doling out the puppy eyes.  
  
The look on Zack’s face makes Cloud burst into full blown cackling.  In a gentle motion, Cloud shoves the pillow he was cuddling into Zack’s face.  
  
“No.” Zack pushes the pillow aside and starts bouncing on the bed like a child. “No, no, no, no, no!” But Cloud cannot stop laughing; tears begin to form on the corners of his eyes.  Then Zack immediately flops down beside Cloud, pulls him close and cuddles him. “Good.  I always wanna make sure you wake up smiling and laughing.  Making sure you’re happy is the best way to start the day.”  
  
Cloud gazes at Zack with the utmost blithe expression on his face, and Zack leans in to kiss the corners of Cloud’s mouth before planting one on those happy lips.  
  
“You stayed up late last night, so I didn’t try too hard to wake you up earlier,” Zack murmurs. “I figured you could use a bit more sleep.”  
  
“Yeah, thanks.” Cloud smiles.  Zack gives Cloud one more kiss before he gets out of bed.  
  
“I’ll be downstairs waiting for you. I’ll make some tea so it’s ready by the time you get down.”  
  
“I love you.”  
  
“I love you, too.” Zack takes Cloud’s hand in his own, and kisses those fingers, before leaving and closing the door gently behind him.  
  
_‘You’re right, it is the best way to start the day,’_ Cloud agrees to himself, before sitting up from bed and heading to the bathroom.


End file.
